


I Stood Up (And All the Dead, Lie Down)

by Daelin



Series: Darcy Lewis Crossover Bingo [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Old Kingdom - Garth Nix, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Abhorsen Trilogy - Freeform, Abhorsen-In-Waiting, Darcy Lewis Crossover Bingo, Gen, I am so excited to write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 09:41:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6279391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daelin/pseuds/Daelin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Surely, interning for an astrophysicist in the Middle of Nowhere, New Mexico, would be pretty death-free. No near-death experiences, no dead coming back to haunt the living – too much sunlight, too much heat, too far from any major battlefields. It was going to be a great summer.</p><p>Yeah… about that.</p><p>Surely, interning-slash-assisting Jane on an ongoing basis would be relatively stress-free. Right? Darcy's old hat at the equipment by now (not what it means, but how to put it together) and since Thor was gone, no problem. Nobody to out her abilities, nobody to… Goddammit Jane, why do you keep walking into the middle of literally deadly situations?!</p><p>Or, the one where Darcy is the Abhorsen-In-Training in this odd Old Kingdom fusion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Stood Up (And All the Dead, Lie Down)

**Author's Note:**

> Due to unforeseen circumstance and connectivity issues (read: was called to watch my two-year-old nephew and I could not find the wifi password at my brother's house) this was not posted earlier as I had hoped. Don't worry if you've never read the Nix books - I think you'll be okay. Know that there are necromancers that use Free Magic to raise the Dead, and there is only one necromancer who puts the Dead to rest, and that is the Abhorsen. 
> 
> Darcy Lewis Crossover Bingo - Day Three, #8 - (Free Square) The Old Kingdom

There is a border between the living and the dead that only a few can sense, and fewer can cross without actually dying first. For Darcy Lewis, this border is an arbitrary boundary – she has always known where it stands, and that is most anywhere she is near, if she has the strength for the journey. The Charter that ties her life-force to the universe is a constant stable, though, a pillar of strength that Darcy clings to when the stench of Free Magic trails into the New Mexico desert behind an Asgardian monster.

Not Thor, obviously. The Destroyer.

Although the Asgardians clearly existed within the Charter and were Charter-bound, some Free Magic was tainting the Charter.

But, Darcy had slightly bigger things to worry about, like, not dying. And keeping Jane not-dead.

And then… and then Thor was dead.

 

Or was he?

Watching Jane mourn the man she'd known for only a few days, Darcy was ill at ease, lips twisted in worry. She could not feel the cold tug at her feet that signified a soul in the river, and she was loathe to step over the boundary here – not with strangers so close, and nobody to protect her body. She whistled low, under her breath, barely able to hear herself. It was a lilting kind of tune, and would have seemed horribly out of place if anyone had been listening for it. Was Thor dead? Wasn't he?

He wasn't.

What the hell were they doing in Asgard nowadays?!

 

Thor was gone, leaving them standing in the middle of a sandy stretch of dirt.

That night, all three – Jane, Darcy, and Erik – joined the locals the next town over and imbibed of more than a few alcoholic beverages.

* * *

Tromso gave Darcy the heebie-jeebies, and not because of the sudden circumstance that got them there. (A sudden guest lecture, though? Really? With that kind of money, they could've gotten Stephen freaking Hawking up here, but hey, she and Jane weren't going to sneeze at what very well could buy their next doo-dad or hickamabob [Darcy's terms, not Jane's] OR get them better plane tickets on their next trip OR buy them a nice hotel room for their next trip… yeah, they weren't turning up their noses on this offer.) No, what gave Darcy a good case of the creeps was the Gore Crows following them around. She had felt their presence immediately upon landing at the airport, and with a few twitches of her finger she linked together the Charter marks that made up a spell of hiding, cloaking. With a flick of a finger she disguised as pulling out her earbuds, she sent the mark at Jane and watched the spell settle around her comfortably. Good. Screw whoever wanted to use Gore Crows as spies – Darcy could handle them herself, if she had to, but now Jane had protection.

At least she hadn't heard anything from Aunt Stacia. That most always bore ill news. This was probably just a pesky disturbance of some lesser necromancer that wanted to see what new blood came into his country. They'd be fine.

Did Darcy say they'd be fine? They were not fine. While Jane was addicted to the consultation she was doing at this college observatory, preparing for her keynote presentation, Darcy was, you know, doing intern-things. Getting coffee and making food and keeping everyone fed and friendly (because neither she nor Jane knew anything beyond “hello” and “bathroom?” in Norwegian, and the scientists on staff started peppering their questions with the stuff if their blood sugar got too low) when she happened to catch the news about mother-freaking LOKI, in GERMANY.

Really, the dude stank of tainted Charter even through the grainy, outdated television.

As if that wasn't bad enough, almost immediately thereafter, there was a hole ripped in the sky above New York and everything anyone knew about the universe was blown out of the water. There were aliens in the sky and Thor was there and the Charter was groaning with the flex of the Free Magic hole in the space-time continuum -

A Gore Crow pecked at the window. The raggedy flesh and feathers on his sternum fell away to reveal his ribcage. Darcy blasted him with a few well-aimed Charter marks for fire and heat. When Jane looked up to see why Darcy was kneeling on the couch, leaning on the back of it, Darcy just shrugged and said, “Bird hit the window.”

Jane shook her head and went back to the news footage.

* * *

Darcy never did find out who sent the Gore Crows. A few days after the Battle, they were nowhere to be found, their stolen bodies decayed and the spells not renewed by the necromancer who made them.

London was calm, and quiet, and occasionally dreary. Jane was in a funk that Darcy could barely get her to shake. Later, Darcy wished she could get back to those days, before everything blew up:

Jane, stepping into a space-anomaly that had almost the feel of a Charter Stone, but she came back smelling like a lightning strike. Filled to brimming with Free Magic, Darcy could only freak out that she'd been gone so long. Then Thor showed up, and the rain curved away from them in a subtle Charter spell that Darcy didn't think big, brawny Thor was capable of. (“Is this you?”) Thor did his disappearing trick with Jane. Darcy called the number on the card SHIELD had given them in New Mexico a hundred times (and boyyyy, when things finally came to a crux, she was going to have the time of her relatively short life telling them that they _could have prepared for this if somebody had picked up the goddamn phone_ ). Picking up Erik from the psych ward because she sure as hell didn't understand why Jane's equipment was beeping and blinking all over the place and Ian, bless him, was too new to the party to understand half her American colloquialisms let alone Jane's homemade devices. Jane and Thor's semi-triumphant return and shortened explanation. Dark elves, creatures half-in and half-out of the Charter, who had determined halfway through the Charter build that they weren't sure they wanted light in the universe. Descendents of Yrael, they made Darcy incredibly nervous, even moreso now that she knew they were trying to cause the next worldwide extinction event. Well, universe-wide. ...God, and didn't that just give you the jitters.

The Convergence and latest Battle for Earth (TM) (Darcy was totally going to get that trademarked) occurred in Greenwich, and miraculously, the Dark Elves were defeated, and even more miraculously, nobody died. (Well, Darcy felt the Dark Elves die. The Old Royal Naval College was officially on her list of Places to Not Go For a While, and maybe also on her We Should Look Into Putting A Charter Stone Here Since Stonehenge is Long Gone. [That last list was very, very recent].) Thor had to go, again, and Jane wore her lost face around when she surfaced for air from her new atmospheric readings. Darcy watched her like a hawk, although in Darcy-speak that meant that she pestered Jane into drinking some water and eating some fruit and getting up and stretching. She was just... Worried.

* * *

 

Erik was arguing with Jane about the equation behind an hypothesis when she sneezed, took a stuttered breath, and crumpled. He shouted and reached out to catch her before her head hit the table, and gently lowered himself with her to the floor.

He heard Darcy scrambling over the back of the couch and approaching him. There was a trickle of blood coming out of Jane's nose, and she was definitely wan. "She just collapsed," he told her, worried. "Call an ambulance." He pressed his fingers to Jane's throat. She had yet to take another breath.

"Don't need one," Darcy mutters. "She's gone. But I'll get her."

Erik turned to chastise her, but Darcy had frozen in place. Literally. On her knees next to him, Darcy's skin was covered in a layer of frost, her hair sprouting spiky hoarfrost. Her breath escaped her slowly, like the wind a long ways off.

Erik leaned his head back against the leg of the table with a thud, Jane's head on his thigh. "I did not sign up for this. Maybe I should've stayed on the medication."

* * *

Darcy felt the bone-piercing chill of the water tugging at her ankles, and took a moment to catch her bearings. She was at the wellspring of the river, before the First Gate. With a practiced finger movement, she sketched the sign of disclosing, of seeing hidden things, while in her mind she imagined the same symbol and thought of the handy Charter-space where she had tucked her tools. Hand-sketched symbol and mind symbol connected and suddenly she held a bandolier with odd adornment and a steel wand. With practiced movement, she slung the bandolier and its cargo over her shoulder to drape across her front, and clasped her hand to the pouches on it. While most modern bandoliers contained ammunition, hers held seven bells – the bells of a necromancer. Their handles hung down, their clappers silenced by their leather pouches. Darcy started walking, following the feel of her friend across the wellspring of the river – good. Not quite Dead, then. Darcy's fingers crawled from the topmost, smallest bell to the third bell pouch, small enough yet to fit the curve of her palm, and undid the leather binding that held it. The handle felt familiar, and the bell seemed to hum with energy.

Walker.

Jane's form was kneeling in the river, rocking ever-so-slightly side to side with the current, as if a good breeze would knock her over into the water. Darcy grabbed her shoulder with the hand gripping the wand, and Jane's eyes flew open, unfocused. “Dar-cy?” she whispered slowly.

“Yup, it's me. Time to get up,” Darcy said back, trying to talk quickly. Voices carried here in the silence.

The older woman shook her head. “M'tired.” Her eyes began to close, but opened quickly as Darcy gave her shoulder a shake. “Okay, okay,” she protested, and, using Darcy's arm as a railing, laboriously dragged herself to a standing position. And then she stood there, eyes unfocused again, staring at the water.

Darcy took a breath, and rang the Walker out in a syncopated pattern, right-out-flick-and-left-down, over and over in a kind of figure eight. Jane's legs started to move, and she stood herself straight up and looked at Darcy. “Home?” she asked.

“Yes, Jane. Back to London. Go!” Darcy replied, and walked beside her friend, back into Life.

* * *

Erik was startled out of his skin when the crackling of hoarfrost and the coughing of Jane heralded both girls' return from… wherever the hell people froze and went to, anyway. He wasn't sure he needed to know. “Jane. Jane, are you alright?”

Jane's familiar brown eyes met his, clearer than they'd been, though sporting deep circles borne of exhaustion. She tried to give him a smile, then rolled her head, still on his thigh, over to stare at Darcy, who was losing the frost as if it had never been there. The intern-slash-assistant gave her a falsely bright smile. “Bed, boss-lady, and I don't want to hear a peep against it,” she chirped cheerily.

Thin brown brows knit together in consternation. “And then, you, you...”

Darcy heaved a sigh and laboured to her feet, offering a hand down to Jane. “And then I'll explain some hidden talents I may have, but only after you've gotten rest and a few good meals in you, Jane.” 

The other woman half-scowled. “And then, questions.”

“Yes, Jane, and then questions.” Darcy looked at Erik. “You, too?”

Erik blinked, and took in the girl's leather bandolier - that she had most definitely NOT been wearing a few minutes ago - and looked at Jane before looking back at her. “Do I get to say no?”

He'd startled her with his answer. She replied slowly, “If you want to say no, you can. If you don't need explanations, I won't force them on you. Think about it.”

“Ok,” he replied. Jane lifted her hand to Darcy's, and with Erik's hands under her, they got the petite scientist up and to bed.

* * *

 

When Thor returned at breakfast two days later, Darcy was beginning to think he had a thing for breakfasts. It seemed to be a thing. Maybe her pancakes were just Universe-Class.

**Author's Note:**

> Just over 2,000 words.
> 
> This will have a companion piece where Darcy explains to Jane (and maybe Erik) about her abilities.
> 
> And possibly a talk with Thor. :)
> 
> **title taken from the Emily Dickinson poem; "It was not Death, for I stood up, (355)"


End file.
